Good evening. I intend this evening to talk about a Buddhist sutra. In this Buddhist sutra, like many sutras, it starts off by setting the scene, you know, and saying there were all these amazing people there. There was all sorts of monks and nuns, and then there were bodhisattvas, and then there were prominent people. And I'm just thinking, well, that's a little bit like tonight, you know. all sorts of people here from different workshops and different ways of life and some people who've been I was just thinking as I sat down the last time I sat here was in late December towards the end of a three-month intensive practice period where a group of us had been sitting for three months

[01:00]

meditating most of the day and I would sit here and talk about nothing and in a true Zen fashion and now it's like this so this sutra is called the Vimalakirti Sutra and an interesting sutra because it represents a sort of a shift in a paradigm shift in what it takes to practice to practice Buddhism up until then the prevailing thinking was the archetype of Shakyamuni Buddha give up your life you go beyond society

[02:05]

in its conventional way and you become a renunciate and you beg for food and you spend your time in meditation and mindfulness it's a little bit like winter Tassajara life becomes quiet and simple. And then summertime, it's not so quiet and it's not so simple. And then the paradigm of Vimalakirti totally challenges the paradigm of Shakyamuni. He's a householder. He's a lay person. but not only as a householder and a lay person but he visited gambling parlors but solely to bring enlightenment to those who were gambling he was well versed in secular writings but delighted in the true law of the Dharma

[03:27]

respected by everyone, he was foremost among those who gave alms. Embracing upholding the Dharma, he guided the young and the old. He frequented busy crossroads to bring the benefit to others. He entered government offices and courts of law so as to aid and rescue all of those he could. He was among rich men. They honored him because he preached the superior law. He was among lay believers. They honored him as free from attachment. He was among Brahmins and they honored him for his lack of self-conceit. He was with great ministers and they honored him for his integrity. So the notion the archetype of Vimalakirti is that he was in the world but while he was in the world he didn't lose something he didn't lose something about what is at the heart of practice so what is it that he didn't lose

[04:57]

What is it that's at the heart of practice that isn't defined or dictated to by the circumstances of your life? And how do we tune into it? How do we stay true to it? How do we let it set the course for our life? And this is the theme of the sutra. marvelous thing about Tassahara is that winter and summer the center of gravity is the meditation hall, is the Zendo and the center of gravity of the meditation hall is the altar honoring respecting aligning with the deep truth

[05:58]

practice and in Buddhism that deep truth and particularly in Zen in Zen that deep truth is beyond the ideas we have about it so what is it what is this deep truth that's beyond the ideas we have about it but that can flow into any and all the actions of our life. How do we do that? How do we allow that? How do we enable that to happen? What is the process that each of us is being asked to go through? This is the inquiry of the sutra. And then the amazing thing is the sutra is almost comical. It's very theoretical.

[07:01]

The theater is this, is that Vimalakirti, as skillful means, becomes ill. And this is to allow people to come visit him. And then when they come visit him, he helps them discover. what this deep truth is so after it tells us how absolutely wonderful he is the stage is set and then it goes on like this and at this time Vimalakirti thought to himself I'm lying here in my sick bed why does the world honored one in his great compassion feel to show some concern for me This would be Shakyamuni. The Buddha, aware of this thought, said to Shariputra, you, Shariputra, you must go and visit Vimalakirti and inquire about his illness.

[08:12]

Shariputra is the archetype. Shariputra is renowned for is profound meditation and in that profound meditation having deep insights into the nature of human existence into the nature of all existence so such a person with such profound insights is asked to go and visit this layperson this sick layperson Shariputra replied to the Buddha in these words, world honored one, I'm not competent to visit him and inquire about his illness. Why? Because I recall one occasion in the past when I was sitting meditating under a tree in the forest and Vimalakirti appeared. At that time Vimalakirti approached me and he said, ah, Shariputra, you should not assume that sitting like that is the way to sit.

[09:25]

means that in this three-fold world you manifest neither body nor mind. So three-fold world is the world that's conjured up by our conditioned preferences and prejudices. I can often struggle when people are new to Zen Center and someone who's cheery and outgoing will come to Zen Center and then they'll say, oh, the people here are so friendly. And then someone who is more withdrawn and hesitant will come and say, hmm, the people here are so withdrawn and slow to speak to you. we co-create the world we live in.

[10:32]

Sometimes we conspire. We can conspire in terms of competitiveness. There isn't enough and we should start wars about who's going to get what there is. The world is a dangerous place and we should start wars so we can overcome our dangerous enemies and then we go out and do it amazingly this is our karmic world this is the realm the world of karma the world that arises from the thoughts and feelings and prejudices and preferences and then the next world is the world phenomena the sights the signs the smells the tastes the touches something basic tangible about existence like when you go for a hike up the road and you look out over the hills at the vast sky and the valleys and the rocks

[11:56]

in the trees, in the plants. And they're not looking back at you thinking, hmm, who are you? What are you here for? Are you one of my people or are you one of them? It's a vast, thoughtless, phenomenal existence. up opinions and judgments so this world and in the third world goes beyond both of those goes beyond the sense of time and space so Vimalakirti says to Shariputra in all of those worlds don't cling to

[12:59]

body and mind in whatever situation you're in in whatever context whatever person you're meeting whatever state of mind or emotion whatever psychological issue that's prevalent in your being to not reify it to not make it solid to not grasp it and hold on to it and say, this is reality. This is one of the foundational notions of zazen, of awareness meditation. Everything is impermanent. Everything is just the interplay what's going on at the moment the sound is heard it registers from previous history it's given the name the sign of the creek from a sense of place it's positioned in space it's over there about a hundred and fifty feet

[14:26]

this is what it is to be alive is to have a sense of time and space sense of place but to not cling to it Vimalakirti is saying in that not clinging liberation in that not clinging some way of not struggling is discovered about human life. But he goes on from there. Not rising out of your samadhi of complete succession and yet showing yourself in the activities of daily life This is sitting.

[15:33]

This is meditation. So samādhi we can think of as very focused absorption. But we can also think of samādhi as where there is continuous attention. Now the object of attention can change, but there's continuous attention. So do what you're doing when you're doing it. The training of the Zen, the training in Zen is to do what you're doing when you're doing it. But it applies to anything that you're doing. The archetype of Vimalakirti is that he does all these array of things.

[16:39]

He doesn't simply live in a monastery, in quiet, in seclusion. He enters the world and he does what he's doing when he's doing it. And it's marvelous the way in our society now that this has become common knowledge. I remember several years ago listening to the finals of the basketball and Chicago Bulls were playing somebody and Phil Jackson was their coach. And the two commentators were saying, this is true, two commentators were saying, do you think Phil Jackson changed when he started to practice?

[17:41]

And one said, no, he was always weird. But I was struck, you know, right there, you know, broadcasting about, you know, the finals of the basketball championships the topic of Zen and the practice of Zen pops right up and Phil Jackson who's actually a very famous coach in basketball world practices Zen and he teaches Zen to his players he said Michael Jordan who was in his day, the premier basketball player, he said he was a natural because he had trained in doing what he was doing when he did it. And so Phil Jackson has taught these guys to take the essence of that

[18:56]

and draw it into sitting and the potency of this is that in sitting we learn something about non-doing and we learn something about non-doing that teaches us how to do In the non-doing, we learn to drop off what's extra. Presence is simple. We don't make the moment happen. The moment happens. We can participate. We can be part of it.

[20:00]

fundamentally we always are so that's why non-doing allows that to become evident and that's the same in any moment we are a participant in this co-arising we can co-arise with the people we work with we can co-arise with our family we can co-arise with the people we practice with and there's something about that quality that's already there and tapping into it through Zazen that we learn there's something in doing that doesn't require straining, that doesn't require struggling.

[21:09]

It's like Michael Jordan when he would talk about playing basketball. In fact, it became a common term in the basketball world. He said, when I'm really doing what I'm doing, I go unconscious. And there's just the doing. There's nothing extra. So sitting zazen, in a way, is discovering, is realizing, is practicing non-doing. The body bodies, the breath breathes, the mind minds. We discover something about letting go of the extra, struggling to control the mind and have it be a certain way, judging what arises, struggling with it by clinging to it or pushing it away.

[22:27]

So Vimalakirti points this point out to Shariputra. Not arising out of your connection to what's happening, out of your samadhi of non-doing, and yet showing yourself in the activities of daily life. This is meditation. Not abandoning the principles of the way And yet showing yourself as a common mortal, this is meditation. So the other night, a couple of nights ago, I was teaching a class here to some of the students and I asked them to ponder this question.

[23:52]

What does practice ask of you? What does the integrity of your life ask of you? What does the truth of your life ask of you? What is it that you value as wise and compassionate? What does it ask of you? In some ways we all have different answers. And then in some ways we all have the same answer. We just find different words for it. principle of the way that Vimalakirti is talking about. Without abandoning the principle of the way. Staying true to your expression of the core values of our life.

[25:00]

Entering into your life. Entering into being a common mortal someone who has emotions ways of being in the world habits of being in the world behaviors what is it to stay true to stay authentic and enter the world that you are part of so in a Zen monastery we do that in a variety of ways one way we do it is physically at the center of gravity of the monastery we have a symbol a reference point

[26:08]

a reminder of this staying true, of this expression of integrity, this expression of answering the question, what does practice ask of you? Not, what do you want from practice? What do you think practice is going to change in you? that you want to have changed it's not that question it's what does it ask of you what is it to draw out of your being the courage the nobility the compassion the patience the generosity the wisdom how do you allow that request to be close to the center of gravity of your life as is typical in practice places the center of gravity we put a symbol of the sacred oh yeah that's right that is what I aspire to that is the reference point that is the alignment that allows

[27:41]

the vicissitudes of life to be seen in a different way surprising as it may seem for those of you who come as guests on occasions those of us who live here and know each other or maybe to live up to the high standards we set for each other. And in one light, you know, that can just be seen as failure, as disappointment. You know, if you want to get harsher, you can look upon it as hypocrisy. You know, here you are saying this and doing that. But in another light, it can be seen as how as humans we can miss the point we can forget our fundamental vow and behave in some other way and then even more deeply we can see how

[29:09]

from the place of our fundamental vow we are living a conditioned life we have these built-in habits of emotion of mind of behavior and as we bring them into the light of awareness we discover liberation and we can help each other to do that so Vimalakirti is saying to Shariputra this Shariputra this way of sitting and engaging the very stuff of your humanness from this reference point that very stuff is not cause for impatience and frustration It's a teaching.

[30:12]

It's teaching of conditioned existence that allows you to have a deeper insight into what it is to be human, allows you to have a compassionate response to who you are and to who everyone else is. But Vimalakirti is not done. by sundry theories but practicing the 37 factors of awakening this is meditation meditation is not a theory the learning that happens in practice is experiential you know it's not theoretical

[31:15]

So we have countless ways to guide and instruct our practice. But they're not theory. The doing, the learning happens through the doing. This is meditation. You engage the body. You engage the breath. You engage noticing the state of mind. you engage noticing thoughts and feelings and through that engagement an experiential learning call happens called learning how to be Zazen and in that process the 37 steps of awakening are revealed nirvana without having put an end to worldly desires this is the quiet sitting and if you can do this kind of sitting you will awaken at this time world honored one this is Shariputra at this time world honored one when I heard him speak these words I was silenced I had nowhere to reply

[32:49]

And this is why I am not competent to go visit him and ask him about his illness. It's not that I does practice. It's not that I is competent. That I masters something. It's a giving over. The body knows how to breathe. We've been living this life since we left the womb. Or if you care to think about it, since we were conceived. But either way, we've been living this life. This heart has been beating. These lungs have been breathing. Something is innate.

[34:01]

Giving over to something reveals the wisdom and compassion of practice. It's not something I accomplish. is a willingness to experience just what's happening it's a willingness to let the breath breathe the body and the amazing thing about that in one sense it seems so refined esoteric exotic so separate from the stuff of our lives paying our bills working at whatever we work at or if you're a monk here at Tassajara you know cleaning the rooms cooking the food emptying the garbage

[35:22]

one way it seems so removed from all of those mundane tasks and then in another way it brings us into intimate connection it teaches us what is it to do what we're doing when we do it there's something about when we do that when we do what we do and we're doing it the world comes alive something is learned through the activity something is made manifest something is revealed and in that doing that manifestation teaches.

[36:29]

And this is the Heart of Zen practice. So this paradigm shift happened in the development of Buddhism. This sutra was written about the original, as far as we can tell, about the first century. rather than feel like you have to craft all the appropriate environmental conditions to support your practice. This notion of getting to the essence of practice and letting it find its expression in the life you're already living. And then this sutra in many ways represents the inspiration for Zen practice. If you ask Phil Jackson, I think he would tell you this is what made him a world champion coach.

[37:54]

that it's about accomplishment but just that there's something in doing what we're doing when we're doing it that brings forth a vitality of being so at Tassahara as in any Zen practice place right in the midst of the activities of guest season with all the things that are going on all the different kinds of workshops and practices there's like a heartbeat a beating heart of the dharma that infuses all those activities with the opportunity to awaken this is the teaching of Vimalakirti thank you

[39:10]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_96.27